1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure relates to a system for updating a fleet of multi-function peripheral (MFPs) in a peer-to-peer manner utilizing software for distributing updates. The software may be used as starting point for update distribution. The method of the present invention involves sending only necessary update files to MFPs (instead of entire binaries) after a peer-to-peer distribution agent is installed in each MFP. The net result is a significant simplification of workflow and results management, and a significant improvement in the speed at which a fleet of MFPs is updated.
2. Description of the Related Art
Updates to a fleet of MFPs can become very repetitive, time-consuming and open to errors in tracking results. For example, consider the example of reconfiguring 900 MFP's which is depicted in FIG. 1.
In this example, a user uploads a file list of target MFPs 102, typically separated into lists 104 of a plurality of MFPs (e.g., 15 in this example), and the upgrade configuration file or certificate. The user then reinstalls the application (packaged with the update file) to the batch of MFPs from the server 100. The user then typically waits approximately 3 minutes to determine the batch results. Any machines that were turned off or did not reboot would report as failed. For failures, the user would have to manually manage a list of these failures and retry the job at this point or later. This process would be repeated 60 times in order to reconfigure all 900 MFP's in the example.
If the user wishes to trace the history of the update job run against all target MFPs (e.g. to determine if any were missed or were still failed), the user must review a log of jobs with over 900 lines of entries, each representing an individual IP address or host name for a given date. Such a process is time consuming, repetitive and prone to human error due to the large number of iterations needed to complete the task.